Happy Birthday Chanel 2.55!!!

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.
Coco Chanel

One of the most iconic bags of all times – Chanel 2.55 – celebrates its 60th anniversary in February 2015.
Exactly 60 years ago in February 1955 Gabrielle Chanel introduced the famous 2.55 shoulder bag to the market (the release date explains the name  of the bag).
In the 1950s when handbags were still dominating in fashion, the 2.55 was a true innovation in the industry. Being the supporter of both beauty and comfort Mademoiselle Chanel came up with the shoulder bag that offered the advantage of leaving your hands free to smoke or to hold a drink.

The bag with a diamond-shaped pattern and braided chain shoulder strap became an immediate bestseller. Since then the 2.55 is one of the most recognizable and the most imitated bag in the world. Among the many celerities that have been carrying this iconic shoulder bag are Brigitte Bardot, Jackie Kennedy, Miley Cyrus and Dutch Queen Maxima.
The original 2.55 had a rectangular turn lock. In 1985  Karl Lagerfeld (current creative director of Chanel) introduced a twist lock with the “CC”-logo on the 2.55.  Nowadays the house of Channel offers many new variations of 2.55 each year.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of this iconic Chanel piece, the museum of bags and purses in Amsterdam Tassenmuseum Hendrikje is currently hosting a temporary exhibition named “Happy Birthday Chanel! 60 years of the 2.55”. Along with displaying a selected samples of the famous piece, the exhibition presents the history of the bag and its influence in the fashion world. 

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje with an initial purpose of checking out the Chanel 2.55 exhibition. To my surprise the entrance ticket (9,50 euro) was valid throughout the whole museum. So I made an unplanned tour for about 2 hours. Besides the temporary exhibition, the museum offers also permanent collections featuring the bags from 16th century till nowadays.
As someone who is very interested both in fashion and history I found it quite informative, especially the section with the bags from 16-17th century. The area with modern time bags was also interesting, though I missed some details. In the section “Unusual bags” I didn’t find the tags with the names of the designers for each of the presented items.  The only information available was the general description of the section and some info about a few pieces.

Apart from this nuance my experience was quite positive. After the tour I was so inspired with all these beautiful bag collections that I ended up buying two very cute bags from the in-museum shop. If you are following me on social media, you have probably seen them in my posts.
Btw, the exhibition on Chanel 2.55 is open till May 3rd. If you happen to be in Amsterdam until then, it may be an interesting option to consider. In general if you are passionate about bags, fashion history and shopping I would recommend you to visit this museum.

This was it for this time. I hope you enjoyed the post! Don’t forget to let me know your opinion in a comment bar below!  Till next time!